Thursday, 29 September 2011

10 years of misery, and the rest!

Earlier this week Ed Balls pointed out the obvious, that there will be years of misery for millions of people in Britain, unless the government does a rethink.

Before this apology for a government got in I don’t think there were many who didn’t agree that thedeficit needed to be reduced, but it was a question of how best to do it. Unfortunately a lot were scaremongered into believing the only way was very fast & very hard. And being the oil-slick bully boys they are, these Consters painted an awful (& false) picture of what would happen if this wasn’t acted upon, told lie after lie about it being Brown & Labour’s fault, but at the same time conveniently failed to point out who would actually end up ‘paying’. But now it’s all too clear to everyone, with the notable exception of the wealthiest who are getting wealthier day by day, that this government have got it wrong - badly and disastrously for millions of people, those who were NOT to blame for either the global financial crisis, or the one the banks created in Britain.

These days when jobs are cut, it no longer just means that you will have to find another job, which is bad enough, but now it’s quite likely that you’re on the scrap heap because there isn’t another job! And this government are fuelling this problem with its bad habit of needlessly giving away jobs as it did when it awarded Siemens the train building contract instead of Bombardier. And surprise, surprise, the company that put Siemens offer together happen to have various accounts in tax havens abroad.

And of course it doesn’t end there – another person out of work means less money being spent in the economy, with a negative knock-on effect on other possibly struggling businesses, plus a further drain when they rightly draw benefits.

This Labour Conference week has been a fairly positive affair, and hopefully will have given the rank & file a boost. But what would really help is if Labour & the unions can act now – and I mean NOW! – working together to force the government to ease up on Jill & Jo Public, rein in the banks, and tell the utility companies to lower prices. Otherwise it’s going to be a cold, oh so very cold winter, and many more to come!